It will likely be a few weeks perhaps a month before I am ready to start this part of the process at least with the bigger models. I have perhaps 250 hours into the 3D modeling and I will need perhaps another 100 hours, maybe more, to have the exterior and landing gear ready for UV mapping, texturing, bump mapping ...

I have factory blue prints for all (not some) of the external markings which are basically USAAF spec from 1942-1944 but with those specs applied to this specific aircraft model. Not sure off hand how many drawings this is but it is on the order of 10 to 15 sheets for the exterior IE. tons of accurate markings detail is possible. Plus I have drawings showing all of the panel lines and rivet locations on the wings, fuselage, doghouse.... It's a lot of work to dig through the drawing set to find specific drawings since there are over 11,000 drawings and these cover A, B,C, D, K and H models. But I am finding it is worth the effort to do since these provide a treasure trove of highly detailed information. In the end when you work from the factory blue prints you know that what you are producing is very accurate although it can sometimes be hard to figure out exactly what the drawings are telling you. If you are interested in helping with the texturing related stuff that would be great and I will start gathering up markings related drawings so I can get these to you. I spent about 4 hours this week doing nothing but locating and cataloging drawings for specific modeling tasks that need to be done.

I just put the finishing touches on the main landing gear legs on Tuesday and these could be textured at this point. The main landing gear wheels and tires are also done as is the doghouse. The main landing gear will not need bump mapping since every bolt, nut, fitting and protrusion is modeled. But these will need reflection mapping since the oleo piston is polished stainless steel but I do want to bump map the tread pattern into the tires. There are also markings in various places that would need to be incorporated into the main gear texture. In addition, I guess that it might be possible to start doing this work on things like the flaps, ailerons, horizontal and vertical stabs and the rudder and elevator and trims tabs for these. (I plan to animate all of the trim tabs and these are fully modeled at this point including exposed linkages) and landing gear doors. The wing is getting very close and I am currently working on the landing gear well details which is basically all that remains to be done for the wing 3D models.

There is also lots of 3D modeling that needs to be done on the fuselage and I have many of the drawings for these parts already cataloged so that they are easy to find. Most of these are smaller projects (for example. fuselage formers and longerons) that an experienced Blender user could model in short order. But there are lots of these that need to be modeled and for these simpler parts setting up the drawing for and in Blender is often more work than the actual modeling. Since the parts are relatively simple many of these modeling projects are suitable for less experienced modelers as long as they are willing to take their time and do a good job to produce an accurate model. On the other hand some of the needed models are going to be difficult projects that really need a more experienced modeler (the canopy and it's frame for example).

I have not pushed any of this to git yet but I will get things pushed this week end so you can have a look at what I have so far.

Longer term I am hoping to create liveries for this specific aircraft at different times in it's life. For example liveries for what it looked like when it left the factory in late 1944, on VE day, then various National Guard liveries from it's history, it's Soccer War paint scheme, it's Confederate Air Force colors and its present day colors (basically the same as the VE day livery). So 8 or 9 liveries that depict this plane through out its life. The factory and National Guard colors are mostly bare metal and silver paint (on the wings) and should be fairly easy to do once one of these is done.

I have created a Resources directory in the p51d directory and added a WIP folder to it that has my current 3D model work. This is being pushed to git right now and it should be available soon. The WIP directory is fairly large (lot of blue print images and a number of 3D models).

jormapaappa1235 if you are interested in helping out feel free to have a look at the current state of the new 3D models and let me know if you still want to help out. The wing (P-51D-wing-loft-tip.blend), doghouse (doghouse.blend) and main landing gear (landingGear.blend) models will give you the best feel for where I am going with this. The WIP directory also has a number of factory blue prints (about 4 dozen) and these will give you an idea of the quality of the source material being used to create these models.

I am hoping that I can get someone to handle most of the non-3D parts of this (UV mapping, texturing, bump mapping and reflection mapping) so that this can happen in parallel with the 3D work. There is tons of 3D work that needs to be done (enough to keep me busy for the next several months). The current focus is on the exterior model but once the exterior is complete I am fairly certain that a lot of 3D work will be needed in the cockpit since the current models exterior dimensions are incorrect in the cockpit area and much of the existing stuff in the cockpit is eyeballed into the available space and is probably not the correct size/shape.

So if I can get someone to handle some/most/any of the non-3D stuff I can see things progressing like this.

1. Wing and related components, main landing gear, main wheel/tire and doghouse are UV mapped, textured. bump mapped, reflection mapped first. The landing gear, wheel/tire and doghouse are ready for this now and the wing should be ready later this week. Current wing work is now focused on the wheel well detail which is in a fairly advanced state. The inner gear door still need a few small details as well. Everything else is done and all of the models are accurate to the factory blue prints and are very detailed. So detailed that the main landing gear looks like actual engineering drawings being viewed in a CAD package when looking at the model in Blender.

2. When the fuselage interior structure is in place (IE. formers, longerons, interior skin...) the non-3D work on it can begin. At my current pace I suspect that this is about a month out. This includes things like the canopy (partly done) and tail wheel (not started yet) related stuff. The tail feathers are mostly done and only need the dorsal and the fairing to be complete and much of the tail feathers could have the non-3D work done at this point (IE. Horizontal; and vertical stabilizers, rudder, elevator, trim tabs and related linkage).

3. Once basic UV maps with simple no detail (or better) textures are in place for all of the exterior - wing, landing gear, fuselage, canopy... - (IE. enough to allow for the models to be exported to *.ac files) I can start work on animation and integrating the new external model into the FDM as well as restructuring the directories and placing things like the panel and instruments and other cockpit items.

4. Once the fuselage 3D exterior and structure are in place new more accurate 3D models can be built for the cockpit as well as models for stuff that is currently missing (mostly stuff that is behind the pilot (radio gear, fuel tank, oxygen tanks, dynamotor...) can be built.

5. As each new cockpit model is completed these can be UV mapped, textured and bump mapped. None of these should need reflection mapping and most will not need bump mapping

I am hoping to get this all done in time for FG 3.2 and I am certain that I will not get there by myself. The amount of planed work and the standards I am setting for that work (extremely high) make that timeline nearly impossible to do on my own. In addition, I am not anywhere close to being an expert on the non-3D parts of this although I am fairly proficient using GIMP and can create decent textures. But I mostly fumble my way through the UV mapping part and have never done either bump mapping or reflection mapping. I am not sure that I have any idea what would be considered best practices for these things either. So I need expertise in those areas and at the very least I would like to establish a set of best practices/standards for the non-3D stuff.

I can also use help with creating 3D models if anyone wants to help in that area. I have the factory blue prints and anyone who wants to make some 3D models for this project can do this work using the very best possible source material (IE, no cheesy 3 views being used here). Most of the 3D models needed are fairly simple and are suitable for someone with limited experience with 3D modeling. All I ask is that any models produced be of high quality. As I pointed out above the wiki page has lots of detail about this project including TODO lists that seem to keep growing as I make progress since I keep adding details. So please have a look there and let me know if you would like to take on any of the stuff listed either here or on the wiki page. If you would like we can take this off line and use the PM system. Also if anyone else would like to lend a hand please send me a PM.

Also if you don't have a current clone of fgdata and would like to have a look at the new 3D models I can zip up the p51d directory and put this up on box.com for you (or anyone else) to download but keep in mind that this is rapidly changing since I do model updates on a daily basis and a zipped up copy will be out of date in short order. I am keeping git updated as I work on these models so anyone with a local clone of fgdata should already have the new 3D models and will see the progress if they do regular pulls.

I have also found many of the exterior markings related drawings, so far 14, and if you would like I could get you some examples of these so that you know what your potential source materials look like.

Hi, recently I make my own paintings on a Boeing 777 planes. With my own virtual company- not to someone's exist. Is that a problem to upload it in the database? Hope someone answer.For example see my profile picture